People who have been hurt in a romantic relationship or close friendship often put up a shield and are very guarded in respect to who they let get close to them. Some are damaged to the extent that it could take years before they are able to let someone get close to them again. What they are doing is protecting themselves against harm in the future. However, this barrier is born out of fear, and that fear could prohibit a rewarding relationship somewhere down the road. They have no confidence in the possibility of such a closeness with anyone else. When your confidence is shaken, it limits your capacity to receive.
Hebrews 10:35 says not to cast away our confidence, for it has great recompense of reward. How can we throw out our confidence? By failing to properly secure our breastplate of righteousness (Ephesians 6). This particular article of armour is the 2nd largest piece and was used to cover vital organs; which included the heart. The Bible says we should diligently keep or protect our heart for out of it comes the issues of life. Everyone has issues, but how we handle those issues depicts our success or failure in keeping toxins out of our heart.
Our righteousness is of God and not us. We have been justified through Jesus Christ and now God sees us just as if we had never sinned. It is sin that causes us to be cowards and throw out our confidence. That’s the real reason God doesn’t want us to miss the mark. When we miss it, we have a tendency to do exactly what Adam and Eve did; run and hide, covering ourselves with man made protection. When our confidence is shaken, then our belief system is compromised; and a faulty belief system prolongs or terminates manifestation. (“If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.” Mark 9:23)
The devil has only one assignment, to kill, steal, and destroy. We should treat him like the guilty party of a broken relationship. It’s because of him that man kind lost fellowship with God in the first place. He’s responsible for the things and some of the people we’ve lost, either directly, or indirectly when he caused us to lose focus.
No more Satan, we’re not letting you close enough to hurt us again!
